Fat and proud
For a period of time, Miss Anmol Khan Rai drank only water and ate plain bread for her meals.
All because of some anonymous messages she got on social media when she was 15.
She tells The New Paper on Sunday: "I received anonymous messages on my Ask.fm and Tumblr accounts saying things like, 'You're so fat, you're so ugly, no one is going to like you.' I was so young back then that I did not know how to react."
Shaken, she stopped eating during meals.
She says: "I would get disgusted just by looking at food. I did not tell anyone that I was starving every day."
It wasn't just online strangers who commented on her weight.
Close relatives told her at family functions: "You would be prettier if you lose weight. Why don't you stop drinking Coke and go for a run?"
Miss Anmol says: "I felt unworthy. I stopped meeting new people and making friends because I was so ashamed."
It was only at the age of 18 when she found online stories of women with similar experiences that her view about herself changed.
She says: "They were bigger girls who were confident of their bodies. I thought to myself that if they could love themselves, why couldn't I?
"That was when I started truly loving myself and my body.'"
Today, the 20-year-old student at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information has embraced the fat label.
She says: "I don't need fitness trends to tell me if I am attractive or not. I am beautiful."
Miss Anmol is an ambassador for #LetMeBe, a social media campaign started on April 15 aimed at raising awareness for body shaming.
It was started by four of her schoolmates, Mr Joel Lim, 23, Miss Loh Min Chyi, 21, Miss Gabriela Lim, 20, and Miss Rachel Goh, 20, as part of a project for their visual communications course.
VIDEOS
The campaign involves a series of videos on their Facebook page, documenting the plight of women who have been shamed for their height, weight, body shape and breast size.
As of Friday, the campaign video gained 26,000 views and 421 likes.
Mr Lim, a second-year communications student, says Miss Anmol's experience is not unique: "I, too, have a friend who resorted to self-harm as she was unable to cope with the comments she received about her weight.
"The irony is that those who body shame others sometimes do not realise the impact of their words."
Looking back, Miss Anmol says: "If I could talk to my past self, I would tell her, 'You are fine. You are perfect the way you are.'"
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